Saturday, December 30, 2017

New Year's resolutions have basically become an annual
joke. Every first of January we make
resolutions for the upcoming year and if we're lucky, they remain valid for the
rest of the month.

So, this year how about making some resolutions you'll
actually be able to keep during 2018?
Here's a list of several such resolutions. I hope you accept these suggestions in the
spirit of humor in which they are offered.
If I've offended anyone, I apologize in advance.

1. Gain Weight. Let's face it, you already have a start on
this one with all the holiday meals, candy, beverages, and snacks.

2. Go Deeper Into Debt. You probably have a head start on this one,
too, from holiday gift shopping. After
all, even buying new things for yourself…well, it was probably stuff you needed
and with all the great sales this year who could resist?

3. Spend More Money. This goes hand-in-hand with the second item
on the list. Spend it now while you're
still physically able to get out to do it.

4. Don't Get A Better Job. Since having any job is better than not
having one, be happy with status quo.

5. Whatever Shape You're In Is Fine. Seriously…round is a perfectly acceptable
shape.

6. Don't Go Back To School. Look at your current life and time
schedule. Now add a part time college
schedule to that plus the cost of tuition (probably the same amount as that new
curved 80-inch 3D HDTV home theater with Dolby Surround Sound you bought in
item two on the list) and the cost of expensive college textbooks. Hmmm…a fine bottle of rare vintage wine or a
bottle of aged single malt scotch vs. Concepts
of Economics Vol. 1.

7. Drink More Alcohol. Open that fine bottle of wine or scotch and
watch your new 80-inch TV.

8. Smoke Like A Chimney. When someone chastises you for putting second
hand smoke out there, ask them if they've traded in their gas-guzzling car for
a bicycle.

9. Stay At Home for your vacation. If, however, you prefer to find toilet paper
that's hard enough to scrape paint, really weird television, and even weirder
food…then travel out of the country.

And last but not least…

10. Don't Volunteer!

And now for something completely different (with apologies
to Monty Python for stealing…uh, I mean borrowing…their
catch phrase).

As a follow up to Christmas, a few words about that much maligned
holiday treat, the butt of so many jokes, that humble yet seemingly inedible
concoction—fruitcake.

Food historians theorize that fruitcake (any cake in which
dried fruits and nuts try to coexist with cake batter) is older than
Moses. Ancient Egyptians entombed
fruitcake and Romans carried it into battle, probably for the same reason. Fruitcake was built to last and it did, well
into medieval times.

It was in the 18th century that fruitcake
achieved totemic status. At that time
nut-harvesting farmers encased fruits and nuts in a cakelike substance to save
for the next harvest as a sort of good luck charm.

And thus the problem.
Any cake that is not meant to be eaten doesn't deserve to be classified
as food.

Our love/hate relationship with fruitcake began in the early
20th century when the first mail-order fruitcakes became fashionable
gifts. It ended up as a mass-produced
product using barely recognizable fruits and packed into cans as heavy as
barbell weights.

And another something different…

While celebrating the arrival of the New Year, there's one
thing you should keep in mind—the darker the liquor, the bigger the
hangover. According to a new study that
compares the after effects of drinking bourbon vs. vodka, what sounds like an
old wives' tale is true…to a point.

Brownish colored spirits such as whiskey and rum contain
greater amounts of congeners than clear liquors such as vodka and gin. And what are congeners, you might ask? They are substances that occur naturally or
are added to alcohol during the production and aging process, many of which are
toxic. They contribute to the alcohol's
color, odor, and taste. They also
interfere with cell function, and I'm NOT talking about your mobile phone.
:) And they viciously punish your head
and tummy the next morning. According to
the study, bourbon is aged in oak barrels and has thirty-seven times as many
congeners as vodka, which is heavily filtered to remove impurities.

Drinking in the study was relatively moderate compared to
some New Year's Eve binges. The average
blood-alcohol content of the survey participants was 0.1 percent, somewhere
between 0.09 ("mildly intoxicated" and considered legally over the
limit in most states), and 0.15 ("visibly drunk" and definitely on
your way to jail if you're driving a vehicle).
The study's findings may not translate to your holiday party.

The bottom line, however, is that congeners are not the
primary culprit in the dreaded hangover.
The credit goes to the alcohol itself

Wishing everyone a happy AND SAFE New Year's Eve and a
marvelous New Year. May 2018 bring you
happiness and health.

Saturday, December 16, 2017

Although many believe this to be the title of the popular
Christmas poem, the actual title is An
Account Of A Visit From St. Nicholas.
The long poem, written by Clement Moore in 1822 as a present for his
three daughters, has become a Christmas staple.
Moore, an Episcopal minister, was initially hesitant about publishing
his poem due to its frivolous content.

The poem, first published anonymously in the Troy, New York,
Sentinel on December 23, 1823, had
been submitted by a friend of Moore's.
It was first attributed to Moore in 1837 and finally publically
acknowledged by Moore himself in 1844.

Four handwritten copies of the poem are known to exist,
three in museums and the fourth (written and signed by Clement Clarke Moore as
a gift to a friend in 1860) was sold by one private collector to another in
December 2006 for a reported $280,000.

Moore's poem is largely responsible for today's image of
Santa Claus as a "right jolly old elf" who flew from house to house
on Christmas Eve in a sleigh pulled by eight flying reindeer. A rotund fellow who entered via the chimney
and left toys for good boys and girls.

In 1881, political cartoonist Thomas Nast used Moore's poem
as the basis to create a likeness of Santa Claus that matches today's
image. The cartoon, which appeared in Harper's Weekly, depicted Santa with a
full white beard, a red suit trimmed in white fur, and a large bag filled with
toys. He also gave Santa his North Pole
workshop, elves, and Mrs. Claus.

Over the years, there has been some controversy about the
authorship of the poem. There are those
who contend that Henry Livingston, Jr., was the true author. Livingston was distantly related to Moore's
wife. But the general consensus
continues to be that Clement Clarke Moore is the true author.

Saturday, December 9, 2017

We all know Charles Dickens' story of Ebenezer Scrooge and
his visits from the three ghosts on Christmas Eve (four if you count the
initial visit from his former partner, Marley).
A story of redemption—a miserly man whose concept of the Christmas
spirit is "Bah, Humbug!" Then
his life is turned around after Marley tells him about his upcoming visits from
the Christmas ghosts. The first one from his past to remind him of what was and
the promise of what could have been, the second from his present to open his
eyes to what he had become and how others felt about him, and the final visit from
the ghost of the future to show him where he was headed if he didn't change his
ways.

From a writer's perspective, it was the first time a story
had been told from the point-of-view of a character within that story rather
than an omniscient point-of-view of an unidentified narrator. Point-of-view—something vital for today's
writer of fiction.

The novella, first published in London on December 9, 1843,
has been a staple of the Christmas season as a movie, television show, or play
for well over a century.

This year, Hallmark's two cable movie channels started
showing non-stop Christmas movies the first of November. I wondered how many different versions of
Dickens' story there were. So, I did
what I usually do when I want a quick answer to something…I Googled it.

And the results came as quite a surprise. Things I knew, things I had known but
forgotten, and things I never knew.
Twenty-eight films, twenty-three television productions, plus other
miscellaneous offerings such as staged plays.
Live action, animation, a 3D computer generated images version from
Disney in 2009, one set in America during the Great Depression of the 1930s,
and even a couple where the character of Scrooge was portrayed as being female.

The first filming of A CHRISTMAS CAROL was a fifteen minute
silent movie made in 1908 followed by two other silent versions made in 1910
and 1913. There have been the straight
theatrical films, musical versions, and animated versions with favorite and
very familiar cartoon characters taking on the roles of Dickens' famous
characters. Of the twenty-eight movies,
ten were released under Dickens' exact original title of A CHRISTMAS CAROL as
were six of the twenty-three television productions.

Even though all the various productions of A CHRISTMAS CAROL
tell Dickens' story of Scrooge and the visits from the Christmas ghosts, many
had their own unique twist and flavor on the original. I think my favorite is a 1970 theatrical
musical version titled SCROOGE which stars Albert Finney as the miserly
Ebenezer Scrooge who learns the lessons of the spirit of the Christmas season.

Wishing everyone a joyous holiday season, happy new year,
and most of all—Peace On Earth.

Saturday, December 2, 2017

In honor of the season, I'd like to introduce you to Chance
Fowler and Marcie Roper and tell you a bit about their Christmas story.

Good morning Chance
and Marcie. I appreciate you taking the
time to talk with me today.

Chance: Thank you, Shawna. It was nice of you to invite us. So…what would you like to know?

My first question is
for whichever of you wants to answer it.
How did the two of you meet?

Chance: (Winks at Marcie) Do you want to take that
one?

Marcie: My pleasure.
I was minding my own business, doing a little window shopping on my way
back to my car from the book store, when he came along and accosted me in broad
daylight. He grabbed me against my will
then proceeded to kiss me. I was truly
shocked and also a little frightened. I
had no idea who he was or why he had forced himself on me.

Chance: Wait a minute…in my defense that wasn't quite
the way it happened.

Marcie: (grins) My way sounds more mysterious…and
more interesting.

Did he literally grab
you on the street, a total stranger, and kiss you for no reason?

Marcie: Oh, yes…that's exactly what he did.

Chance: Well…not really…not like that.

Ah, ha! What's the true story?

Chance: I was being followed by another one of those
tabloid photographers who were always trying to get candid pictures of me that
they can exploit, things taken out of context and blown up into something they
aren't.

As sole heir to the
Fowler Industries fortune, an eligible bachelor leading a very high profile
life including yacht racing and making the rounds of the club scene always with
a beautiful woman on your arm, I can see where there would be an interest in
your activities.

Chance: Since I was on my way to one of my special
projects, I had to lose the guy following me.
I was looking for a place to duck away from him…hide in plain sight, so
to speak. As soon as I rounded a corner
and was out of his sight for a few seconds, I turned my reversible jacket
inside out to a different color, but there wasn't any place for me to hide. I spotted her standing in front of the store
window. My intention was to put my arm around her shoulder so it would look
like we were a couple window shopping together, but for some strange reason she objected.
So I did what I had to do. The
photographer ran on down the street without paying any attention to a couple
kissing in front of a store window. I
tried to apologize, explain to her, but she ran off without giving me an
opportunity.

Marcie: It was later that I discovered who he
was…Take-A-Chance Fowler, as the media referred to him. Major playboy, always being photographed with
different women, yacht racing, seen at all the trendy clubs. In other words, a spoiled rich guy living off
the family wealth who had never done an honest day's work in his life.

Chance: Definitely not a very flattering assessment
of someone she didn't even know. I was
determined to set her straight and change that erroneous assumption.

Take-A-Chance? Where did that come from?

Chance: One of those stupid tags the press pinned on
me. "Always willing to take a
chance on some wild stunt."

Marcie: I can't begin to tell you how embarrassed I
was when he told me Chance was his legal first name, not some cute little
nickname. It was his mother's maiden
name. And the more I found out about the
real person behind all those tabloid headlines, the more impressed I was and
the more I liked him.

You mentioned your
special projects. What did you mean by
that?

Chance: I have several projects I finance and am
actively, hand's on involved with, things I don't want the media to know
about. I don't want the other people
involved to find their pictures and names on the front page of some tabloid
newspaper.

What type of projects?

Chance: (flashes a sly grin) You can find out all
about them in the book.

Marcie, did you
encounter any unusual problems when you began dating someone of
Chance's…uh…notoriety?

Marcie: (furrows her brow in a moment of
concentration) Well, there were some uncomfortable moments with his family,
such as the Christmas dinner at his father's house—

Chance: (laughs) Merely uncomfortable? That's an understatement!

Is there more to the
family story than you're saying?

Marcie: You mean other than his father being
responsible for driving a wedge between us that nearly destroyed our
relationship?

Chance: My family is synonymous with the word
dysfunctional. They're the
personification of that old joke…look up the word dysfunctional in the
dictionary and you find their picture.
You'll find out all about them when you read the book.

I'd ask you to explain,
but I already know what you're going to say.

Marcie: (laughs) You have to read the book!

Thank you, Marcie and
Chance.

Blurb:

ALL I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS…

When millionaire Chance Fowler first kissed the pretty
stranger in his arms, he'd only meant to dodge the photographers who'd tailed
him. Then she ran off—but he couldn't forget her tempting taste on his lips. So
he sought out the tantalizing woman who'd ignited his long-dormant desire….

Lovely Marcie Roper was the first woman to close her eyes to
Chance's fortune. And though she'd captivated the jaded tycoon, Marcie yearned
for what his wealth couldn't buy—a man who would say "I do" and mean
it forever. Could Marcie convince Chance that love—for the right woman—would last a lifetime?

Inside Front Cover
Excerpt:

She was certainly different from the type of women he
usually encountered. Her eyes sparked with the fire of emotion and her stance
declared a very appealing independence. Yes, indeed. Marcie Roper was quite
different—a breath of fresh air. He recalled the way she felt in his arms, the
taste of her delicious mouth. He fought the almost overwhelming desire to pull
her into his arms and kiss her again.

He watched her walk away from him—for the second time since
he first encountered her. She had turned out to be a very intriguing woman. He
already knew about the golden flecks in her hazel eyes, her soft pliable lips,
her addictive taste and how good she felt in his arms. And now he knew she was
certainly a challenge—and Chance had never been one to back down from a
challenge.

****

Harlequin has reissued 17 of my backlist titles. THE MILLIONAIRE'S CHRISTMAS WISH was
originally released by Harlequin in print and is currently available in ebook.

THE MILLIONAIRE'S CHRISTMAS WISH, a Silhouette Desire by
Shawna Delacorte reissued by Harlequin in ebook and available at http://ebooks.eharlequin.com. Also available from Amazon for Kindle, Barnes
& Noble for Nook, and other online vendors.
Additional information and excerpts available on my website www.shawnadelacorte.com Information and excerpts from my other books
also available on my website.

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Lover Unknown

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